Esparza-Gonzalez

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 04-10267 Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  D.C. No.

CR-03-00226-HDM

OSBALDO ESPARZA-GONZALEZ,

OPINION

Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada Howard D. McKibben, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted February 14, 2005—San Francisco, California

Filed September 6, 2005

Before: Dorothy W. Nelson, William A. Fletcher, and Raymond C. Fisher, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge D.W. Nelson

12321 UNITED STATES v. ESPARZA-GONZALEZ 12325

COUNSEL

Cynthia S. Hahn (argued and briefed) and Michael K. Powell (briefed), Assistant Federal Public Defenders, Reno, Nevada, for the defendant-appellant.

Ronald C. Rachow, Assistant United States Attorney, Reno, Nevada, for the plaintiff-appellee.

OPINION

D.W. NELSON, Circuit Judge:

Osbaldo Esparza-Gonzalez, who is Latino, appeals from his conviction, under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), for being an alien unlawfully present in the United States after an earlier removal. Esparza-Gonzalez alleges that two Equal Protection violations under Batson…